IN THE 14-team AL, the Yankees and Indians have formed a league of their own.

Like a synchronized dance routine, the AL championship has passed from the Indians to the Yankees to the Indians to the Yankees over the past four seasons. The general feeling is there will be no misstep in 1999, that one or the other will reach deepest October.

The trend suggests it is the Indians’ turn, this being an odd year. But it is an odd year in other ways, as well. Just consider that now Kenny Rogers may be pitching in New York when his good buddy Andy Pettitte is gone.

And strange in that the opening weeks of this season suggested that it was not just Cleveland’s turn to win the AL, but to win it all for the first time in half a century. The Indians broke out in a winning frenzy akin to the 1998 Yankees and it was easy to believe then that they were the logical landing place for Curt Schilling or whatever other ace starter would come on the market at this time of year.

The winning frenzy, however, has ended and neither Schilling nor any other difference-making starter appears on the market. Most frustrating to the Indians has to be that all the words written and moans exhausted about the imperfection of the Yankees this year and there they were, just one-half game behind Cleveland as the two began a three-game series at the Stadium last night. In what was supposed to be Indian Summer.

Which made this a perfect time for the teams to meet. Not just because the Yankees’ perfect leading man, David Cone, was starting the opener.

But because these two clubs always serve as such an ideal state-of-the-moment barometer for the other.

“You know what this is?” said current Yankee Jeff Manto, an Indian early this year and parts of 1997-98. “This is live scouting for postseason. The teams are going to be able to determine what they need in a matchup against one another.”

The trade deadline is a week away and the Indians are still looking for that starter who could counter the Yankees’ rotation strength, the Yankees are still hunting a lefty reliever to neutralize David Justice, Kenny Lofton and Jim Thome.

“The Indians are not looking at beating New York now as a big accomplishment,” Manto said. “They don’t circle the calendar for July, they circle the calendar for the postseason. But they know they have to go through New York eventually.”

That means coping with the Yankee rotation. Yankee starters began this series leading the AL in wins (45), winning percentage (.625), innings (5882/3), strikeouts (429), opponents’ batting average (.254) and shutouts (four). That is the Yankee answer to an Indian club leading the AL in hitting and runs, but having to start retreads Tom Candiotti and Mark Langston the first two games.

These teams define the age-old matchup of good pitching vs. good hitting, illustrated last night when Cone hoped not to be Exposed against Cleveland.

There was this talk-radio blather following Cone’s perfect game Sunday against Montreal, that the 15th regular-season 27-up, 27-down was tainted because it came against the meager Expos. Of course, Montreal has been around 31 years, the last few as one of the worst in the sport-and has had only one perfect game thrown against it – by Cone.

Still, the Indians were a step up for Cone of earth-to-the-moon distance.

Dressed in tan slacks and short-sleeve gray sweater, Cone betrayed none of the outward signs of distress when he entered the clubhouse less than 90 minutes before yesterday’s opener. His locker cubicle was jammed to overflow with mementos of his historic accomplishment and his chair was spilling mail.

As he was putting his little part of the Yankee world into order, Bernie Williams was in one part of the clubhouse strumming a guitar, Orlando Hernandez was in hot pursuit of mayonnaise for a sandwich and Roger Clemens was finishing a fifth sports drink en route to a sixth workout.

There was no sense of big series in this veteran atmosphere. But after getting through with Montreal and Tampa Bay, and continuing to lack an unbeatable aura, the Yankees were facing a chance to secure the AL’s best record and judge themselves yet again against their great nemesis.